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Only the board of directors and the office staff knew that Mars Casey physically worked there. And the letter had been hand-delivered with every detail necessary to get to his specific floor and office number.
Mars pressed a button on his desk. A minute later, Lenard walked briskly in, his face pale. “What do you need?” Lenard didn’t question why Mars had pressed the emergency button.
“Put the building on lockdown. Someone hand-delivered a threat. And I need to check on Rhiannon.”
The security check took three hours. After which, Mars went directly to Rhiannon’s office.
She was finishing up for the day, and he ushered her out of the office and into a bulletproof car. Her face paled at the revelation of the threat.
James drove them home while Mars was on the phone with Alex. Something had to be done about the situation soon. Before things got out of hand.
At Mars's place, Rhiannon fell asleep in his arms on the couch. Mars fell into fitful sleep himself. He woke at dawn to the sound of pounding on the front door. Mars eased out from under Rhiannon, ensuring that she didn’t wake up.
James stood at the front door, with Alex behind him.
“Thought you should see this.” Alex’s voice was subdued as he handed Mars a newspaper.
His blood froze again at the headlines.
Another murdered woman. A tall woman with long dark hair. A woman with dark eyes and a heart-shaped face.
She looked so much like Rhiannon that his heart skipped a beat just reading the headline.
The woman, Vanessa, had been twenty-nine. She was a teacher. She worked in a school ten miles from Rhiannon’s office.
Mars did not wait to think too hard about the situation. He looked at James and Alex.
“I’m booking a trip out of town for Rhiannon and me. We’re going to take care of this now. Once and for all.”
James and Alex nodded. Mars watched as James’s hand drifted to his sidearm. The Glock was in a holster on his hip. The formidable bear shifter probably had a dozen other weapons on him, aside from his strength, teeth, and claws, of course.
Mars turned and walked briskly into the kitchen. He put the coffee on for the group as his mind raced. Outwardly he remained calm.
Finally, he settled on a plan.
He looked up at James and Alex grimly.
“We’re going to need a decoy.”
EIGHTEEN
RHIANNON
The time in Mars’s home was now tinged with fear and apprehension. He was trying to be cheerful, trying to be positive. But something had changed. Something he wasn’t talking about.
Rhiannon had overhead whispers between Mars and James, her bodyguard. And she had also been introduced to a ferrety-looking man named Alex.
Alex was a PI hired by Mars to look into the threats. Upon their first meeting, she had thought it overkill.
But a day later, her perspective shifted, no pun intended. Mars refused to allow her close to any windows and had shoved furniture up against the glass terrace doors.
As though he was anticipating a bullet.
His entire security team always remained in his home. There also were always three bear shifters and a leopard shifter outside.
Mars had also begged Rhiannon to make arrangements at work for the week off and had even started packing for her.
She had reluctantly agreed, and only because she could see that Mars was serious about the threat. And she understood. It should have been impossible for him to receive a threatening letter at his office and hand-delivered, no less.
